Electrical connector 100 disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-237666 and shown in FIG. 6 is equipped with an insulating housing 110 including upper and lower housing members 111, 112, upper electrical terminals 121 and lower electrical terminals 122 in rows which protrude from respective wall surfaces 113, 114 of the housing members 111, 112, a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 130 has conductive pads (not shown) on an upper surface, and both ends of which are respectively electrically connected to the upper and lower terminals 121, 122, and a slider 140 is clamped within sections of the FPC 130 and is inserted between the rows of electrical contacts 161, 162 of a mating electrical connector 160 so that the conductive pads electrically engage the rows of contacts 161, 162. The slider 140 is used in order to facilitate the engagement of the conductive pads of the FPC 130 with the rows of contacts 161, 162 of the mating connector 160. A supporting member 150 fastens the upper and lower housing members 111, 112, and regulates the movement of the slider 140 in the vertical direction.
Next, the method of assembly of the electrical connector 100 will be described. First, for each of the upper and lower terminals 121, 122 of the upper and lower housing members 111, 112, the upper terminals 121 and conductive pads disposed on an upper surface of one end 131 of the FPC 130, and the lower terminals 122 and conductive pads disposed on an upper surface of the other and 132 of the FPC 130, are connected by soldering via a base plate 133 attached to an undersurface of the first end 131 of the FPC 130 and a base plate 134 attached to the undersurface of the second end 132 of the FPC 130. Next, the slider 140 is clamped from above and below by the sections of the FPC 130, and the upper and lower housing members 111, 112 are fastened by means of the supporting member 150 while both ends of the slider 140 are also supported by the supporting member 150. As a result, the electrical connector 100 is completely assembled.
However, in conventional electrical connector 100, since the housing 110 is constructed from upper and lower housing members 111, 112, the number of parts required in order to construct the housing 110 is increased, so that parts control is a problem. Furthermore, since the housing members 111, 112 must be formed using a different mold, mold costs are increased.
On the other hand, if the housing 110 is formed as a single integral housing, parts control is facilitated and mold costs are decreased. In such a case, however, since soldering connections must be made while the slider 140 is clamped between sections of the FPC 130 when the conductive pads disposed on the upper surface of one end 131 of the FPC 130 and the conductive pads disposed on the upper surface of the other end 132 of the FPC 130 are respectively connected by soldering the upper and lower terminals 121, 122 thereto, this connection work, and by extension the work of assembling the electrical connector 100 is time consuming and therefore expensive.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector which has an FPC and slider, in which the manufacturing cost is low, and the assembly work is simple.